Census 2020: Resource Page

On behalf of the New York Counts 2020 coalition, thanks for your interest in our 2020 Census outreach efforts. Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York are honored to be among such motivated advocates and strong partners in the NYC Counts 2020 coalition.

We also want to thank all who came out to our 2020 Census Policy Briefing on February 6th. The turnout and overall interest has us motivated to play our part in ensuring young children, immigrants, low-income families, and other vulnerable populations are no longer undercounted – and thus underrepresented.

We want to express our thanks to those who presented and led group discussions at the briefing including:

Liz OuYang, Coordinator for New York Counts 2020

Steve Romelewski, Director of CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center

Amy Torres, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Chinese-American Planning Council

Ann Amstutz Hayes, Senior Vice President of Scholastic National Partnerships

As we discussed during the briefing, New York City residents are at a considerable risk to be undercounted when it comes to the census. Whether it be an outdated address, lack of institutional trust or language barriers — our city is being underrepresented. However, with your help, we believe the outcome will be different in 2020.

Click the “plus” signs below to reveal more information.

Get Involved

Expect to hear more from us and our partners in the coming months, but in the meantime, here are few action steps you can take today and in the near future:

Resources

Throughout the coming months, we will be adding resources for advocates interested in learning ways to ensure all New Yorkers are counted. Check back periodically as we’ll be adding more files to our resource list.

The Census website has an enormous amount of information and can be difficult to navigate. Here are some quick links that may help you get the answers you and the tools you need to begin doing outreach in the communities to which you belong:

Event Participants’ Questions: Answered

Why is it important to know if a household has single parents?

According to the latest Census Bureau research on census self-response, married couple households have higher census self-response rates than single-parent households, especially single female-headed households. In other words, households headed by single parents are less likely to answer the census questionnaire on their own, and therefore need to be counted in person by census enumerators, which heightens the risk that these households will be counted inaccurately or missed entirely.

It is important to know for a few reasons, one of those reasons being the ability to view changing demographics in America overtime. The changes in the number of children in single parent households might be an indicator of shifts in social norms, the economy, or other social institutions.

Federal funds, grants, and supports to counties and communities are based on population totals and different breakdowns by demographics like sex, age, race, etc. Single parents tend to be a disadvantaged group, with many single parent families struggling to make an adequate income. Data on household composition helps to inform federal agencies for their planning and funding of government programs that provide services, supports, or funds to people raising children alone (e.g. SNAP, WIC, Section 8, Head Start, SCHIP, and other grants).

How does this categorization directly correlate to how government dollars are spent on social services?

Federal programs use the Census Bureau data to define the characteristics of populations served by their program or the characteristics of organizations and local government eligible to receive funds to provide those services.

“Programs use population, demographic, economic, and/or housing characteristics in formulas used to calculate an allocation or determine eligibility for a program. For example, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program uses measures of poverty, population, housing overcrowding, age of housing, and population growth to allocate funding.”

Who is accountable for counting children and youth (up to 24) who are in foster care?

Ultimately, the householder is responsible for counting those individuals who live in their home, and their relation to those individuals. The 2000 Census was the first decennial census to identify children in foster care specifically. The 2010 census did not identify foster care children specifically (reasons why the question were dropped are in the article below).

The person who completes the census (usually the homeowner or renter) is designated as the householder. Then, all other household members were categorized in terms of their relationship to the householder, where foster child was an option in the 2000 Decennial. This allowed people to view characteristics of foster children specifically, rather than only counting foster children with all children.

Foster children (and other children in temporary or complicated living situations) are more likely to be missed on the census form, potentially because respondents are unsure of whether to include the child as a household resident (e.g. Usual Place of Residence).

Who is accountable for counting youth in juvenile detention?

Youth in juvenile detention, like all individuals, are counted in their “usual place of residence.” For the 2020 census, the census bureau states that juveniles in correctional facilities or group homes should be counted at their facility.

Are individuals with felonies, who are not eligible to vote, included in the census count?

The census seeks to count ALL individuals, including incarcerated individuals. Incarcerated individuals are to be counted at their correctional facility (“usual place of residence”), not their pre-incarceration address.

Are individuals with felonies considered in the allocation of dollars into social services?

Redistricting is a process that is undergone after the decennial, where states are to redraw their legislative districts. This process is threatened when we count incarcerated folks at their prison address, because it inflates the total population in areas that have large prison populations. Though these areas might show up as having large populations, much of the population are not active members of society and, as you mention, cannot vote – ultimately, throwing off the political power of the voters in those neighborhoods. Some states ultimately choose to change the addresses of their prison population to reflect their pre-incarceration addresses, prior to redistricting. In 2020, the census bureau will offer a product to states that will make this process easier, if a state should choose.